“I’m in.”
No follow-up or emotional processing. Just a woman who’d already made her exit plan and was waiting for someone to hand her the key.
By one in the morning, I had four converted hunters and a window to get them out.
“I need to take you somewhere tonight,” I said. “A camp in the forest. And I need you to trust me when I say that what you’re about to see will test every instinct the Order trained into you.”
Reese stood first. “Whose camp?”
“Lycans.”
The word detonated quietly. Damon’s jaw locked. Kaia’s eyes narrowed. Reese sat back down.
“You want us to walk into a wolf camp,” Damon said. “Voluntarily.”
“I want you to meet the people fighting the same enemy you just discovered you have.”
“And if they kill us?”
“They won’t. I’m carrying their children. They’ll behave.”
Reese stared at my stomach. Damon blinked three times. Kaia looked at Wyatt, who gave a single nod that said yes, she’s serious, don’t ask follow-up questions.
“For the record,” Damon said, standing slowly, “this is insane.”
“Noted. You coming?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m coming.”
Kaia was already at the door.
“If a wolf eats me,” Reese muttered, “I’m haunting you.”
The drainage tunnels felt longer with five people moving through them. I led because I knew the route, and Wyatt brought up the rear because his instinct defaulted to protecting the group’s blind spot. Reese scraped her shoulder on a pipe junction and swallowed the yelp. Damon’s breathing was too loud for the confined space and Kaia kept a hand on his back, steadying him without a word.
We emerged into the forest and I set the pace toward the new camp.
Eight miles south. Farmon’s warning about distance and deterioration circled in my head, but the bond was warm tonight. Three frequencies pulsing steady through the muted wall, responding to my proximity even from the new location.
The relocated base materialized through the trees just before dawn. Solomon’s organizational discipline was stamped across every detail. Supply stations at measured intervals, sight lines cleared, a fire pit positioned to minimize smoke visibility from the north.
Percy was the first to spot us.
He emerged from the tree line at a sprint, covering the distance in seconds, and his expression cycled from alert to relieved to darkly amused when he registered the four humans flanking me.
“You brought friends.”
“Converts. Be nice.”
“I’m always nice.” The grin spread across his face, dimples deploying, and behind me Reese made a sound that wasn’t subtle. Percy’s attention snagged on it for half a second before returning to me. “Solomon’s been pacing for three hours. Lucian’s pretending he hasn’t been watching the tree line since midnight.”
“Sounds accurate.”
Solomon appeared beside Percy without a sound and Wyatt flinched. The full-body, combat-trained flinch of a man whose reflexes identified a predator before his brain caught up. Solomon registered the reaction with a clinical interest that wasn’t exactly welcoming.
“Four,” Solomon said, scanning the group.
“Four,” I confirmed.
